West Point Museum: Hudson River Valley Ramble

All visitors to the United States Military Academy are encouraged to tour the Museum to view the oldest and largest diversified public collection of miltaria in the Western Hemisphere. The Museum supports cadet academic, military and cultural instruction. Its collections include nearly all aspects of military history and encompass the history of West Point and the United States Military Academy, the evolution of warfare, and the development of the American Armed Forces. Based upon captured British materials brought to West Point after the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777, the Museum collections actually predate the founding of the United States Military Academy. When the Academy opened in 1802, many Revolutionary War trophies remained to be used for cadet instruction. By the 1820s, a teaching collection of artifacts existed at the Military Academy and after the Mexican War (1846 – 1848) West Point was designated by Executive Order as the permanent depository of war trophies. In 1854 the first public museum was opened and today it represents the culmination of more than two centuries of preserving our military heritage.